


Silly Love Songs

by Boccaccio



Category: Imperial Radch Series - Ann Leckie
Genre: F/F, Fluff, this fic would be rated g but seivarden is seivarden so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2017-09-19
Packaged: 2018-12-31 16:35:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12136584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Boccaccio/pseuds/Boccaccio
Summary: An inebriated Seivarden writes Breq a song and now the whole crew is singing it.





	Silly Love Songs

**Author's Note:**

> I'm in a hospital waiting room because my roommate is having surgery and I'm drinking copious amounts of coffee and vibrating with anxiety, but writing Gross Fluff is soothing. Enjoy this episode of Mercy Rules: the slice of life Imperial Radch sitcom you never asked for. 
> 
> I'm in love with commas, and I'm sorry.

Seivarden woke with a throbbing headache. Groaning, she pulled the blanket over her head, trying to divert her attention from her nausea, thinking, perhaps, that she might make some excuse and spend the day, or at least a good deal of it, sleeping off the hangover, when a hazy but horrifying recollection of the previous night struck her. 

_Shit._ She pulled her covers off her head. 

"Ship," she said, as causally as she could manage, though of course _Mercy of Kalr_   would sense her agitation, "How much did I have to drink last night." 

_Quite a lot_ , ship said in her ear, _even by your standards_. 

"And while I was drinking," Seivarden continued, her stomach sinking, "Did I try my hand at poetry?"

_You did. An epic, in fact. It was quite long._

"And did I," she said, truly panicking now, "Record myself singing it?" 

_Yes, lieutenant._

"And I suppose. I suppose I sent it to the Fleet Captain?"

_You did._

"Aatr's _fucking_ tits! Why didn't you stop me?" 

_I did suggest that it might not be the wisest thing to send to the Fleet Captain, but you did insist._ Ship showed her an image of herself the night before, grinning stupidly, and she heard herself say:

"I absofuckinglutely insist you send this to Breq. No, don't argue. It's a fucking masterpiece, she'll love it." 

Seivarden pushed the image aside before the actual singing started, heaved herself up into a sitting position, buried her face in her hands with a groan.

"Amaat's ingrown fingernails," she breathed, swearing only made her feel slightly better. 

_For what it's worth, the Fleet Captain will probably appreciate a new song. It's been a very long time since she's heard something new._

"But this one is about her! And I wrote it." 

And, as she recalled, it included a line about her face shining with radiance like starlight. She smoothed back her bedhead (or tried to), took a deep breath. If she got up right now, maybe she could run to Breq and offer some kind of explanation. Or an apology. A song would've been bad enough if she'd just shoved it under bed. Plenty of Radchaai were given to composing drunken songs at the spur of the moment. But to actually show it to someone? And to Breq, of all people? She shook her head (still throbbing), pushed her messy curls back from her eyes again, and forced herself to her feet. She had just the presence of mind to throw on a shirt as she rushed from her chamber.

 

Outside, Seivarden almost ran straight into Amaat four, who sang under her breath as she hurried down the hall. With a twist in her gut, she realized what she was singing. 

_In icy cold she pulled me from the snow,_

_With steely gaze and icy eyes that burn._

"Amaat four, where did you hear that?" She tried to keep her voice calm. The Amaat stopped singing, and looked at her. She was surely surprised and even alarmed to see her lieutenant in her shirtsleeves, hair wild from sleep, clearly hungover, but none of this showed on her face when she answered the question.   

"Some new thing the Fleet Captain's picked up, sir. She's been singing it all morning. Not one of her best, if you ask me. I mean 'icy eyes that burn'? Really. It's maddeningly catchy too. The whole Kalr decade was singing it."

And if it had already reached Amaat decade, probably the whole ship was. Seivarden swayed, steadied herself, clapping a gloved hand to her forehead. 

"Are you quite alright, sir?" 

"Yes," said Seivarden, steadying herself against the wall, wishing every moment she could vaporized, "Just a bit of a headache. Varden's hangnails-" 

Amaat four blinked placidly, the vaguest flicker of amusement at the vulgarity crossed her face and was immediately stifled.

"Perhaps you should lie down, sir."

 "Perhaps," she said faintly, "That will be all, four. Thank you." 

Amaat four continued down the hallway, still singing: 

_Her gloves caressed my weary ashen brow,_

_and what was frozen thawed like spring had bloomed._

 

When she reached Breq's quarters, out of breath, Kalr five already had a bowl of tea waiting for her. Seivarden thanked her and took it with trembling hands. Five watched the dish warily, as if readying herself to make a mad dive to catch it should it slip from her nervous hands, until Breq dismissed her with a nod. The Fleet Captain sat at her table, her face wore its habitual look of poorly concealed anger, which, normally endearing, now struck Seivarden with terror. 

_She's not angry with you,_ ship assured her, _she isn't even all that angry right now. Her face is just like that._

"Seivarden," said Breq, "Ship told me you'd be paying me a visit. You don't look well. Are you ill?"

"No," she stared glumly at her tea, "It's just. The message I sent you last night. I'm very sorry, I was quite drunk, and I- I thought you'd want to hear it."

"I did want to hear it." 

Seivarden flushed, her ears burning.

"But-but it's fucking terrible." 

"It is indeed. But I've never cared much if a song is good or not. And it _is_ flattering. That someone would right about me that way. As a person, I mean. As some kind of hero. Which I'm not, but the gesture is nice." 

_She cried when she heard it_ , ship said, _but don't tell her I told you._

"I'm glad you liked it," Seivarden said, "but the whole damn ship is singing it now. And it was so embarrassing and sentimental. Like something our baby lieutenant might write." 

"It is melodramatic," she agreed. "That line. What was it," she paused to remember the lyric, and sang, off-key:

_She saved me from myself and made me whole_

_The person who I love the most of all._

"Well," Seivarden said, blushing even deeper, if that were possible, "That part wasn't melodrama. It's true." 

And she looked away while Breq wiped her eyes with her sleeve. 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm very bad at poetry but thankfully I could play into that in this case :p


End file.
